Chicago firms head back to school

Sonnenschein partner Errol Stone took a year off from his practice to work with the West Side charter school the law firm sponsors. Photo: Todd Winters

A uniformed 11-year-old boy contemplatively chews a chocolate chip cookie, one of three brands he and his classmates are comparing as they sit in a classroom in Kenwood. "This one is the best," he says, carefully recording the cookie's rating in a workbook called "Shaping Up Your Financial Future."

"If you pick cookie A, what does cookie B represent?" asks the boy's teacher, Connie Moran. Her nine students chant loudly and in unison: "Opportunity cost!"

Not a phrase one expects to hear in an elementary school, but Ms. Moran's taste test is part of a lesson designed to teach sixth-graders economic concepts like consumer decision-making. These nine students and their classmates have been studying money management since kindergarten, and this year they will begin buying stocks with a portfolio of $20,000 that belongs to their class.

They are students at Ariel Community Academy, a 9-year-old Chicago public school of 400 students founded and subsidized by Ariel Capital Management LLC, the Chicago-based mutual fund manager. Ariel's foundation pays the salaries of 13 full-time staff members, and Ariel and Nuveen Investments Inc. each give $10,000 to each entering class for its investment portfolio.

"I think that inner-city kids, kids at risk, need to really have an understanding of what saving and investing are all about," says Ariel Capital CEO John Rogers.

One year after Mayor Richard M. Daley unveiled a plan to replace failing Chicago schools with small, focused programs, at least three dozen local corporations are following in Ariel's footsteps. Chicago's business community has pledged $22 million to help cover start-up costs for new schools, putting Chicago at the head of the class nationally for corporate involvement in public education.

CHIPPING IN

Earlier this year, for example, Northern Trust Corp. donated $3 million for public schools, with at least $2 million earmarked for new public schools. J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. gave $1 million to support Donoghue Charter School, planned by the University of Chicago to open this fall in North Kenwood. The architecture firm Perkins & Will Inc. designed the interiors and library pro bono for Perspectives Charter School in the South Loop. Two former CPS teachers started Perspectives.

"Civic and corporate support right now is at an unprecedented level," says Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan. "There is no question that it far surpasses what you see in other cities."

In fact, New York has raised about $278 million for schools, $80 million of which came in grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Chicago's goal is to raise $50 million, according to Phyllis Lockett, president and CEO of New Schools for Chicago, an organization started by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago to collect donations.

'APPROACH WITH MODERATION'

Whether private funding can turn around Chicago's inner-city schools remains to be seen.

"I don't necessarily think it's a bad idea. But if it is an experiment, then it should be approached with moderation," says Chad d'Entremont, assistant director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Columbia Teachers College in New York. "If Chicago is turning its back on funding public schools, then it becomes a problem."

Charter schools in Chicago obtain the same per-student funding from the state as other public schools, but corporate support allows them to add programs and services in an attempt to boost test scores and improve schools at which students lag their citywide peers.

One Chicago firm has already launched its own charter school under Mayor Daley's new initiative. Legacy Charter School in North Lawndale opened its doors to 90 students on Aug. 1 with more than $1 million in support from Chicago-based law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP. The firm spent 15 months working with education experts to plan every detail of the school and its curriculum. Partner Errol Stone took a year off from his practice to manage projects like drafting a contract for school bus service and setting up an after-school program.

Sonnenschein lawyers were evaluating service projects to mark the firm's 100th anniversary next year when they stumbled upon the idea of starting a charter school.

"We felt that there was no greater need and nothing that we could do that would be more important than trying to improve the educational system," says Mr. Stone, now the chairman of the school's board.

He says the elementary school still faces a number of challenges  foremost, finding a permanent location before expanding enrollment to 400 students.

Nine years into the Ariel school experiment, corporate funding seems to be paying dividends.

"We've persistently, for the region, had the highest math gains for the last three years," says Principal Lennette Coleman. She says 80% of Ariel's students were accepted at selective high schools this year, compared with a district average of 15% to 20%.